Crews are supposed to respond to the highest priority cases within eight minutes but that journey took 19 minutes.

The East of England Ambulance Service has been widely criticised over delays in recent months.

In December the family of Peter Nelson, 26, spoke out when he died following a two-hour ambulance wait after he collapsed at his home in Blakeney, Norfolk.

The incident came four months after a coroner described the trust's crews as "chaotic" after hearing that three-month-old Bella Hellings died when paramedics took more than three times longer than national targets dictate to reach her home in Thetford, Norfolk.

Promoted stories

The inquest heard that one vehicle got lost because "there were too many blue doors" on her street while another stopped for petrol while answering the 999 call in March.

In October last year, another inquest heard that Evelyn Heath, 93, from Attleborough, Norfolk, died from an irregular heartbeat in the back of an ambulance after the vehicle took more than four hours to reach her care home.

Wing Commander Anthony Kelly, who is in charge of Air Cadets in Huntingdon, told the inquest at Huntingdon Law Courts that there had been incidents in 2006 and 2012 when ambulances had been unable to find the base because of an issue over the postcode.

"My understanding is that the matters were reported to the ambulance service," he added.

Since Elouise's deaths, both sites have been allocated individual postcodes.

The inquest is expected to conclude tomorrow.

Michael Smith, a senior Air Cadet instructor, made the 999 call.

"She turned blue and was struggling for breath. She said she was going to die," he added.

He said the call handler insisted on him giving a postcode.

Mr Smith added: "She asked if it was RAF Brampton and Wyton.

"I said it was two separate bases and RAF Brampton was in the village of Brampton."

The inquest heard that a call handler had assumed that because the two bases were linked administratively, they were geographically close together.

Suzanne Truston, who took the call at an ambulance service base 75 miles away in Norwich, said: "Linked, to me, means close to or next to."

She said the problem had come to light when she asked Mr Smith how far he was from a water tower, which was actually near Wyton.

"In hindsight the road name would have helped and I now always ask for a road name for any RAF base," she added.

Ipsoregulated

This website and associated newspapers adhere to the Independent Press Standardards Organisations's Editors' Code of Practice. If you have a compaint about editorial content which relates to inaccuracy or intrusion, then please contact the editor here. If you are dissatisfied with the response provided you can contact IPSO here